_{^{Picture: John Welsh}}

Sakari Säynäjoki from the University of Helsinki is visiting flumen in Jena as a guest researcher from 31 March to 4 April 2025. He is working on a dissertation in the doctoral programme of the interdisciplinary environmental sciences, specialising in practical philosophy, and his topic is fossil civilisation from the perspective of critical social research. He discusses the topic of fossil mentalities with the flumen staff and also gave an online presentation entitled ‘Beyond Primary Energy Myopia’ on April 1st, 2025.

abstract: In our current fossil-fuelled civilization, energy transition and fossil fuel phase-out will obviously ential profound transformations of all parts of society. Yet, social thinking engaging with the issue — i.e., environmental social and political theory — more often than not equate fossil fuels with energy: the transition and FF-phaseout seem to be merely a shift between sources of primary energy. Hence, fossil fuels are usually understood simply as fuels, despite the fact that they occupy indispensable roles in the social metabolisms and cultures of contemporary societies. In my talk, I term this reductive way of thinking primary energy myopia and draft some outlines for a more realistic and qualitative affordance analysis of fossil fuels. Thinking in terms of affordances could help translate the qualitative uniqueness of fossil-based metabolism into socially relevant and applicable terms and, thus, aid us in going beyond primary energy myopia.